Westjet credit soon to expire

[Sue from Canada]

I have a credit (due to a cancelled cruise in 2020) and have to book a flight by this March.  I don't plan on flying anywhere right now.  I've called WJ to request a refund to my credit card and they said no.  Has anyone else been in this situation?  

 

Option:  Book a flight and then cancel it.  Would I get a credit again with a longer expiry date?  Don't  advise me to call WJ - they don't answer their phones.

[canadianbear]

I think you have to book by March but for something in the future?  Do you think you could use the credit for a cruise later next year?  
 

I doubt if you booked & cancelled they would give you credit again.

 

We have a companion ticket to book before the end of the year or lose it but like you, we just don’t feel comfortable booking anything yet. 
 

 

[thon]

Did you cancel the flights or did Westjet cancel them?  You might want to join the Air Passenger Rights (Canada) FB group.  They have ‘experts’ who have been providing information on how to deal with Canadian airlines in these sorts of situations.  

[loving goldens]

If your fare is not a basic fare from westjet you can book and cancel how many times you want up to 48 hours before as long as you book before the end of december.... I booked and cancel 2 flights and rebook one and each time my date got pushed further out..... 

[bookbabe]

Is it a standard WJ travel bank amount or a specific credit with WJ vacations?  If it’s travel bank there’s an option to pay a few bucks to get an extension on your expiry date…

[rodndonna]

we're in the same boat with Swoop credits. Ours state they have to be USED by Jun 2022 and we don't see an opportunity to use them by then. I assumed that meant we had to fly by June 2022 but maybe just have something booked. Was wondering about the booking and then cancelling to get an extension as well.

EDIT

I just did online chat with swoop about using credits and this is what I got back - so I think we can book before expiry for a flight later than expiry - so that helps some.

 

Credits have a validity period of 24 months but travel dates can extend beyond the 24-month window.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by rodndonna

[Froufie]

15 hours ago, Sue from Canada said:

I have a credit (due to a cancelled cruise in 2020) and have to book a flight by this March.  I don't plan on flying anywhere right now.  I've called WJ to request a refund to my credit card and they said no.  Has anyone else been in this situation?  

 

Option:  Book a flight and then cancel it.  Would I get a credit again with a longer expiry date?  Don't  advise me to call WJ - they don't answer their phones.

They cannot legally hold your money or deny you a refund - contact your credit card company and request a chargeback to get your $$ back!

 

[canadianbear]

28 minutes ago, Froufie said:

They cannot legally hold your money or deny you a refund - contact your credit card company and request a chargeback to get your $$ back!

 

I think it may be too late for a chargeback plus if accepted the credit I don’t think they’ll do it.  But some Provinces you may be covered by the Consumer Protection-maybe check that out? 
 

We did the chargeback only because WJ changed our flights & were told outright we would not accept a credit, wanted a refund per the APPR  17(2) and 17(7). Our M/C accepted this and we did the chargeback within 2 weeks.  

Edited December 3, 2021 by canadianbear

[broberts]

6 hours ago, Froufie said:

They cannot legally hold your money or deny you a refund - contact your credit card company and request a chargeback to get your $$ back!

 

 

No idea about the contract of carriage restrictions. But I do know that credit cards generally have a time limit for contesting a charge. In my experience around 90 days.

[Sue from Canada]

18 hours ago, thon said:

Did you cancel the flights or did Westjet cancel them?  You might want to join the Air Passenger Rights (Canada) FB group.  They have ‘experts’ who have been providing information on how to deal with Canadian airlines in these sorts of situations.  

I cancelled the flight since HAL cancelled the 2020 cruise to Alaska.

[Sue from Canada]

17 hours ago, bookbabe said:

Is it a standard WJ travel bank amount or a specific credit with WJ vacations?  If it’s travel bank there’s an option to pay a few bucks to get an extension on your expiry date…

Yes, it's a WJ travel bank amount.  I didn't know about an extension for a few extra bucks.  I honestly don't fly WJ that often as we have such crappy flights out of Ottawa and nothing direct. Plus, I prefer Air Canada's business class.

[Sue from Canada]

8 hours ago, Froufie said:

They cannot legally hold your money or deny you a refund - contact your credit card company and request a chargeback to get your $$ back!

 

Really.  Well then Air Canada also owes me a refund for two flights I just cancelled.  I've got some phone calling to do this weekend.  Thanks

[rodndonna]

5 hours ago, Sue from Canada said:

Yes, it's a WJ travel bank amount.  I didn't know about an extension for a few extra bucks.  I honestly don't fly WJ that often as we have such crappy flights out of Ottawa and nothing direct. Plus, I prefer Air Canada's business class.

 

An option have with Swoop is to book and purchase "modifly" for $10 which would then allow me to cancel (and extend) for a small charge. Still hoping to avoid that but it is a route we may take with Swoop. There is likely something similar with Westjet , although not sure how much they would charge to make the booking flexible

[bookbabe]

6 hours ago, Sue from Canada said:

Yes, it's a WJ travel bank amount.  I didn't know about an extension for a few extra bucks.  I honestly don't fly WJ that often as we have such crappy flights out of Ottawa and nothing direct. Plus, I prefer Air Canada's business class.

Go to the website and request a callback from WJ

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/contact/phone/request-call-back

 

Then you should be able to pay to extend the travel bank expiry.  Your use length seems really short, so they may be extending them already, or be about to.  If not, I think it’s about $25 to extend?

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/help/travel-credits?searchPage=s-searchPage
 

Extending might be better than losing them entirely.  You can also buy flights for other people, so maybe a friend or family member has a trip they could use them for and then they could give you the cash?

[matamanoa]

We were in a similar situation at the end of 2019, just before Covid hit and closed the world to traveling.  We had accepted an offer from Air Transat employees at Gatwick airport to give up our seats on a flight that was overbooked.  They flew us and twenty others to Glasgow to catch another Air Transat flight the following day.  They gave us vouchers worth 700 British pounds each and the voucher had an expiry date for booking of April in 2020.  As we all know now, air travel was still non existent at that time and has only started to come back.  In our case, we had until April of 2020 to make a booking but travel could be any time after that.  As I didn't see any way that we were going to be able to take advantage of our vouchers, I wrote (a letter and stamp, not an e-mail or phone call) a letter to the president of the company, asking for an extension of the booking deadline.  I had to write twice in a matter of months as I had not received any answer and planes were still not flying.  My persistence paid off and my husband and I received a new booking window of March of this year.  We used that to book our flights for 2022 and as of this writing, with new Covid variants popping up, we still hope to be able to make good our plans to travel next year.

[bcwife76]

We've had travel bank credits with WJ since mid 2020 🙄🤦 Some of them we have been able to use but we still have a bunch of $$ tied up. I've booked and cancelled a flight with WJ using these credits a couple of times now and each time you cancel your $$ goes back to the travel bank with a new expiry date. So you could either (a) book a dummy flight and then cancel, extending your date or (b) pay the $20 fee to have it extended by another two years. 

[Sue from Canada]

Thanks to everyone with good ideas to try.